Last month I had over 30,000 unread emails across my 5 email accounts. Every time I went into an inbox, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of messages vying for my attention. Every so often, I would try to work through them little by little, but no matter how hard I tried, they came in faster than I could clear them out. Like a sinking boat, I knew I needed to stop bailing water out and start plugging it from coming in. So, I began the arduous process of unsubscribing to anything I didn’t want to receive any longer.
Over and over, I saw different organizations making the same kinds of mistakes that had turned me off as a subscriber, making me want to opt out of future communications.
Unfortunately, your emails may be meeting the same fate – at best being ignored and at worst driving up unsubscribe rates (and worst-est, damaging your email sender reputation with today’s biggest email service providers). To help you avoid this fate, I’ve put together some key email marketing best practices that really stood out to me as I went through tens of thousands of emails.
Over and over, I saw different organizations making the same kinds of mistakes that had turned me off as a subscriber, making me want to opt out of future communications.
Unfortunately, your emails may be meeting the same fate – at best being ignored and at worst driving up unsubscribe rates (and worst-est, damaging your email sender reputation with today’s biggest email service providers). To help you avoid this fate, I’ve put together some key email marketing best practices that really stood out to me as I went through tens of thousands of emails.
If you’re ready to improve your email marketing strategy and execution, let’s get started!
Only Send Emails to Interested Recipients
This feels like it goes without being said, but based on what I found in my inbox, it doesn’t – don’t cold email! EVER! Unless someone asked to receive whatever you’re sending, don’t send it to them. Since most CRM systems and email marketing platforms specifically require you to get consent to communicate with your contacts, cold emailing clearly violates those platform-specific policies. It’s also unethical, and in some places actually illegal. Don’t do it! The unsubscribes you’re bound to get can hurt your sender reputation with ESPs (email service providers) like Gmail and Outlook, making it harder for others to receive your emails.
For contacts that have subscribed to your emails, stop sending emails to recipients that haven’t engaged with them in a while. Excluding unengaged subscribers is a key strategy to improve your email marketing performance, because it makes it easier to analyze data and optimize results. Most email platforms make this easy to do automatically, but if yours doesn’t, research how you can create a list of contacts that includes anyone who hasn’t engaged in a certain period of time (or after a certain number of emails received) and then exclude that list from receiving future emails. While it may seem counterintuitive to pare down your email subscriber base, the performance boost that results will improve your future email marketing efforts among people who genuinely want to receive what you have to offer. The result is more profitability from your email marketing.
Honor the Relationship
You’ve heard of “Treat others the way you want to be treated,” right? Well, in email marketing the golden rule goes something like this: “Treat other people’s inboxes like your own.” Don’t send people things they don’t want to receive and don’t overwhelm recipients with too many emails.
Segment out your emails into categories like news, promotions/offers, terms of use, etc. so you can allow subscribers to opt into the specific types of communications that interest them. Then, respect those preferences. Sure, you’re going to be excited about everything that you send out, but that doesn’t mean your entire subscriber base will be. Don’t send an “email blast” and hope for good results. Instead, segment your email lists and tailor different emails to those subscriber segments. If your list is largely (or entirely) unsegmented, use automation tools to analyze what your subscribers have interacted with and then build lists off those engagement patterns and follow the same strategy to personalize them for individual segments.
Be honest in your emails. Don’t tout everything as “the best deal” or “the most exciting announcement of the year.” Save the big language and flashy superlatives for the things that truly deserve it. Otherwise, your subscribers are going to feel lied to and will likely lose trust in your brand over time.
Optimize Emails for All Devices
We all know that mobile reigns supreme when it comes to email, and yet some companies still aren’t optimizing their emails for mobile. Ensure your emails show up as well (if not better!) on mobile devices than desktop computers or tablets. Use mobile-friendly email templates and layouts to make engaging with your emails easier on mobile devices. Then, test, test, and test some more!
Get the Mechanics Right
Even the best planned email can fail if the mechanics aren’t done right. Focus on the content first (what you’re saying) and then take your time putting the email together because the formatting (how you’re saying it) is often just as important. Use a punchy subject line and enticing preview text and then format the email for optimal readability.
Make your email easier to read by breaking up text with images and using calls-to-action (CTAs) appropriately. Include email elements to convey your message well and tell recipients what you want them to do next – whether that’s buy, subscribe, learn more, sign up, download, or something else entirely. Don’t go overboard with too many images or CTAs though, or your email may be marked as spam by recipients’ email service providers and miss their inbox entirely.
Say Goodbye Gracefully
Not everyone on your subscriber list will want to receive your emails forever, and that’s okay. Don’t ruin your effectiveness by trying to be everything to everyone or holding onto every last subscriber you’ve ever had. This strategy will ruin your metrics and can hurt your deliverability rates. Instead, say thank you for their time and then say goodbye gracefully.
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that you provide recipients with a way to opt out of your emails. Keep in mind, when someone decides that they don’t want to receive your emails anymore, they can either unsubscribe or block you. If you make the unsubscribe button hard to find or click on or require too many steps, recipients will just block you instead and that negatively affects your sender reputation. Make unsubscribing easy and honor opt outs. If someone is polite enough to go about trying to end your communication with them the right way, respect them enough to let them go. Remember, if you treat people well when they leave, they’re far more likely to come back in the future than if you send them off with a bad experience.
One strategy you can use to potentially extend the relationship is to offer options like the ability to pause emails for a time or customize what kind of emails they receive. It’s possible that someone looking to unsubscribe doesn’t want some types of emails but would still like others. Providing transparency around how often they can expect to receive different kinds of communications can go a long way in keeping email subscribers. For instance, if someone is annoyed because they’re getting multiple emails a week from your company, they may be looking to opt out entirely until they realize they’re currently subscribed to promotional emails but are told that there’s a monthly news summary option available as well. Giving more options increases your chances of retaining subscribers, but you’ll still have some people that choose to unsubscribe.
Don’t do brand damage when you part ways. Remember, if someone has a good experience with your company, they may still recommend you to someone else even if they don’t plan on doing business with you again. There are plenty of scenarios where people can just simply outgrow the need for your products/services. For example, parents who no longer need baby products as their children grow up or homeowners that no longer need landscaping services when they downsize into a condo where exterior maintenance is covered. But even in these scenarios, it pays to preserve the relationship because satisfied former customers can continue to refer new customers to you for years to come!
When you need help with your email marketing, reach out to us! We offer strategic digital marketing consulting as well as standalone copywriting and SEO services to help you get the most out of your email marketing. Start a conversation today to find out how we can help jumpstart and sustain your business growth!
Only Send Emails to Interested Recipients
This feels like it goes without being said, but based on what I found in my inbox, it doesn’t – don’t cold email! EVER! Unless someone asked to receive whatever you’re sending, don’t send it to them. Since most CRM systems and email marketing platforms specifically require you to get consent to communicate with your contacts, cold emailing clearly violates those platform-specific policies. It’s also unethical, and in some places actually illegal. Don’t do it! The unsubscribes you’re bound to get can hurt your sender reputation with ESPs (email service providers) like Gmail and Outlook, making it harder for others to receive your emails.
For contacts that have subscribed to your emails, stop sending emails to recipients that haven’t engaged with them in a while. Excluding unengaged subscribers is a key strategy to improve your email marketing performance, because it makes it easier to analyze data and optimize results. Most email platforms make this easy to do automatically, but if yours doesn’t, research how you can create a list of contacts that includes anyone who hasn’t engaged in a certain period of time (or after a certain number of emails received) and then exclude that list from receiving future emails. While it may seem counterintuitive to pare down your email subscriber base, the performance boost that results will improve your future email marketing efforts among people who genuinely want to receive what you have to offer. The result is more profitability from your email marketing.
Honor the Relationship
You’ve heard of “Treat others the way you want to be treated,” right? Well, in email marketing the golden rule goes something like this: “Treat other people’s inboxes like your own.” Don’t send people things they don’t want to receive and don’t overwhelm recipients with too many emails.
Segment out your emails into categories like news, promotions/offers, terms of use, etc. so you can allow subscribers to opt into the specific types of communications that interest them. Then, respect those preferences. Sure, you’re going to be excited about everything that you send out, but that doesn’t mean your entire subscriber base will be. Don’t send an “email blast” and hope for good results. Instead, segment your email lists and tailor different emails to those subscriber segments. If your list is largely (or entirely) unsegmented, use automation tools to analyze what your subscribers have interacted with and then build lists off those engagement patterns and follow the same strategy to personalize them for individual segments.
Be honest in your emails. Don’t tout everything as “the best deal” or “the most exciting announcement of the year.” Save the big language and flashy superlatives for the things that truly deserve it. Otherwise, your subscribers are going to feel lied to and will likely lose trust in your brand over time.
Optimize Emails for All Devices
We all know that mobile reigns supreme when it comes to email, and yet some companies still aren’t optimizing their emails for mobile. Ensure your emails show up as well (if not better!) on mobile devices than desktop computers or tablets. Use mobile-friendly email templates and layouts to make engaging with your emails easier on mobile devices. Then, test, test, and test some more!
Get the Mechanics Right
Even the best planned email can fail if the mechanics aren’t done right. Focus on the content first (what you’re saying) and then take your time putting the email together because the formatting (how you’re saying it) is often just as important. Use a punchy subject line and enticing preview text and then format the email for optimal readability.
Make your email easier to read by breaking up text with images and using calls-to-action (CTAs) appropriately. Include email elements to convey your message well and tell recipients what you want them to do next – whether that’s buy, subscribe, learn more, sign up, download, or something else entirely. Don’t go overboard with too many images or CTAs though, or your email may be marked as spam by recipients’ email service providers and miss their inbox entirely.
Say Goodbye Gracefully
Not everyone on your subscriber list will want to receive your emails forever, and that’s okay. Don’t ruin your effectiveness by trying to be everything to everyone or holding onto every last subscriber you’ve ever had. This strategy will ruin your metrics and can hurt your deliverability rates. Instead, say thank you for their time and then say goodbye gracefully.
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that you provide recipients with a way to opt out of your emails. Keep in mind, when someone decides that they don’t want to receive your emails anymore, they can either unsubscribe or block you. If you make the unsubscribe button hard to find or click on or require too many steps, recipients will just block you instead and that negatively affects your sender reputation. Make unsubscribing easy and honor opt outs. If someone is polite enough to go about trying to end your communication with them the right way, respect them enough to let them go. Remember, if you treat people well when they leave, they’re far more likely to come back in the future than if you send them off with a bad experience.
One strategy you can use to potentially extend the relationship is to offer options like the ability to pause emails for a time or customize what kind of emails they receive. It’s possible that someone looking to unsubscribe doesn’t want some types of emails but would still like others. Providing transparency around how often they can expect to receive different kinds of communications can go a long way in keeping email subscribers. For instance, if someone is annoyed because they’re getting multiple emails a week from your company, they may be looking to opt out entirely until they realize they’re currently subscribed to promotional emails but are told that there’s a monthly news summary option available as well. Giving more options increases your chances of retaining subscribers, but you’ll still have some people that choose to unsubscribe.
Don’t do brand damage when you part ways. Remember, if someone has a good experience with your company, they may still recommend you to someone else even if they don’t plan on doing business with you again. There are plenty of scenarios where people can just simply outgrow the need for your products/services. For example, parents who no longer need baby products as their children grow up or homeowners that no longer need landscaping services when they downsize into a condo where exterior maintenance is covered. But even in these scenarios, it pays to preserve the relationship because satisfied former customers can continue to refer new customers to you for years to come!
When you need help with your email marketing, reach out to us! We offer strategic digital marketing consulting as well as standalone copywriting and SEO services to help you get the most out of your email marketing. Start a conversation today to find out how we can help jumpstart and sustain your business growth!
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